sportscastingfandomcom-20200215-history
Paul Romanuk
Paul Romanuk (born October 31, 1961) is a Canadian sportscaster and writer. He was born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Romanuk currently does television play-by-play for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL on Sportsnet. From 1981 to '84 Romanuk did play-by-play for the Toronto Marlboros on CKLN radio, and the Oshawa Generals on CKAR radio from 1983 to '87. Romanuk worked for Hockey Night in Canada from 1984 to '87 as a stats assistant and runner. Romanuk also hosted the OHL Game of the Week during the 1986-87 season on the Global Television Network. He was also a reporter and anchorman for CFAC-TV's news show, Newsfirst, in Calgary in 1987. Career Romanuk joined TSN as a freelance SportsDesk reporter from 1984 until his promotion to full-time commentator and reporter in 1987. He did National Hockey League play-by-play for the NHL on TSN from 1989 until 2001. Prior to 1998, Romanuk was the secondary TSN hockey play-by-play voice behind Jim Hughson. From 1998 to 2001 he was the English-language television voice of the Montreal Canadiens' regional broadcasts on TSN. He was best known in Canada for his play-by-play work of international hockey on TSN, where he called virtually every major IIHF tournament from 1990 until he left the network in early 2001. Romanuk is fondly remembered by many Canadians for his distinctive catchphrase "IT ... IS ... OVER!" and "SCORE". He covered the NHL Entry Draft from 1987 to '93 and 1997 as a reporter, and from 1994 to '96 and 1998 as a co-host. He also co-hosted the program Baseball Tonight. In November 1992, while covering the Vanier Cup with TSN, he was literally picked up and carried around the field in good-natured celebration by Queen's fans after the game had ended, shortly after interviewing MVP Brad Elberg. He has not covered a Vanier Cup since then.1 Romanuk has also shared a production credit on CHL Sunday Night on TSN and also on Rogers Sportsnet's presentation of the Spengler Cup hockey tournament. He has also worked at six Olympic Games (Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens, Beijing, Vancouver and London), covering a variety of sports for CBC, TSN and CTV.2 He was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Argonauts in 2004 and the Toronto Raptors in 2004-05. From 2005 to 2014, Romanuk and his wife lived in London, England. While based in Europe, Romanuk worked as a freelance sportscaster, calling various sports (including hockey) on Eurosport and for Canadian networks CBC, CTV, TSN and Sportsnet. Events included several Summer and Winter Olympics, IIHF World Championships, Spengler Cups, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He also did voice-over work for the International Ice Hockey Federation, did play-by-play commentary for the Champions Hockey League in 2008-09, and emceed the 2012 Hockey Forum in Barcelona and the draw of the re-launched CHL in 2014 in Minsk. In November 2013, Rogers Media signed a $5.2 billion, 12-year deal with the NHL for the national rights. In June 2014, Romanuk re-joined Sportsnet as a play-by-play announcer for its national NHL coverage (as well as one the new voices of Hockey Night in Canada), along with the half of the regional Toronto Maple Leafs package that airs on Sportsnet Ontario. In 2015, Romanuk was assigned to his first conference final. Since then, he and Garry Galley was the #2 broadcast team for Rogers' NHL coverage (behind Jim Hughson). However, he did not call a single 2016 NHL conference final game for unknown reasons. Other work He has also produced corporate films and television commercials. His most notable writing work is a series of children's books — Hockey Superstars — for Scholastic Publishing, Canada. He has written many newspaper and magazine articles and continues to create projects for various clients. in 2010 he produced a "Behind The Scenes" documentary of Canadian recording artist Tomi Swick's record, which was recorded in London.